Various wireless access technologies have been proposed or implemented to enable mobile stations to perform communications with other mobile stations or with wired terminals coupled to wired networks. Examples of wireless access technologies include GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) technologies, defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP); CDMA 2000 (Code Division Multiple Access 2000) technologies, defined by 3GPP2; or other wireless access technologies.
As part of the continuing evolution of wireless access technologies to improve spectral efficiency, to improve services, to lower costs, and so forth, new standards have been proposed. One such new standard is the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard from 3GPP, which seeks to enhance the UMTS wireless network.
The 3GPP LTE standards have not yet developed efficient space division multiple access (SDMA) solutions. SDMA refers to a technique in which radio frequency (RF) resources (e.g., frequencies, time slots, etc.) can be reused in different geographic regions by transmitting different beams into the different geographic regions using multi-beam antennas. Because of inadequate SDMA solutions in the LTE standards, efficiencies associated with SDMA are not available in conventional LTE wireless networks.